Victor Lindelöf: An Extremely Underrated Talent
Football players all over the world aspire to one day play in one of the major European football leagues such as the English Premier League. However, the competition is insanely tough in this regard, with only players of high-quality managing to make it in the top-flight of English football. One such player was Victor Jörgen Nilsson Lindelöf. Not only did he manage to make it into this prestigious league, but also ended up in a top club's main starting eleven. Whilst this was not a walk in the park for him with constant criticism being thrown his way, hard work definitely paid off for the Swede and he is now a force to be reckoned with for every striker in the English Premier League.
Gaining Attention from the Premier League
Joining Portuguese club S.L Benfica in 2012 should already be very indicative of the talent this player had already back then. At this historical club, Lindelöf was quick to fight his way up to the main team after having initially started with their reserve team, Benfica B.
In his last three seasons with the main squad, Victor and his teammates triumphed in the league winning all three with relative ease, with Lindelöf displaying his ever-growing talent in the heart of defense as a centre-back. His imposing presence caught the attention of many clubs with Swedish football betting sites offering great odds to betting enthusiasts for his move to some of the best Premier League sides. Lindelöf caught the eye of none other than José Mourinho, Manchester United's coach, back in 2017 and he was quick to make a move on this 6 foot 2 Swede defender with a record signing of €35m.
Manchester United: First Premier League Experience
At the relatively young age of 22, Lindelöf started learning under José Mourinho. The jump to such an important club was not an easy one to handle. In fact, in his first year at Manchester United, Lindelöf ended up spending most his time on the bench watching Chris Smalling and Phil Jones defending Manchester's goal. With that being said, considering the huge move and the experienced teammates he had at his side, Lindelöf still managed to get a respectable 17 appearances in the Premier League starting 13 of them.
Gaining Ground in the Premier League
The following year would see Lindelöf being far more successful in terms of appearances. In fact, Mourinho showed absolute faith in him right from the bat. His personal goals initially did not coincide with those of the club, which visibly struggled right until the sacking of José Mourinho in December 2018.
The Swede did not suffer too much from this move and even under the guidance of Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær, he continued to perform quite well and ended the 2018/2019 Premier League in a positive manner even scoring his first league goal in January.
Confirming his Position in the Heart of Defense
The following season started with Lindelöf's goal being that of keeping his position in the heart of United's defence. Solskjær found no trouble in rewarding Lindelöf for his hard work. In the 2019/2020 season, albeit a turbulent one for football fans and football players alike, he managed to keep a tight grip on his position as a centre-back and registered 35 out of 38 appearances and forming an increasingly solid partnership with Harry Maguire, a collaboration that was bound to flourish even further the following season.
With the 2020/2021 season still seeing Lindelöf delivering solid performances for Manchester United alongside Maguire, one might think that he has reached his ultimate level.
International Career and its Effect on the Premier League
On the contrary, the player showed that he still has room for growth. Not only is he a master at modern defending, displaying great talent in carrying the ball out with his feet, but he also understands his limit in terms of physicality and aerial presence and has visibly got better at these in the past few years.
Additionally, he was absolutely impressive with Sweden in Euro 2020, taking the Swedish defence into his hands and moving the line of defence around with skills worthy of a captain. This displayed even further how Lindelöf does not shy away from responsibilities and could take an even further step in his career growth if he could transfer this skill from international duty to his club.
With this improvement, critics would be silenced once and for all and, without a doubt, we would then be witnessing one of the best defenders to set foot on the marvellous football stage that is the English Premier League.
